New dog bather/dryer at a local family-owned grooming business. It’s my second week and I’d love some advice!

[sentot]

As stated, it’s my second week washing and drying dogs at a small grooming business. I think I’m getting better at making sure all the shampoo is out of the dogs fur before drying and getting every inch of fur I can dry, but my problem is that I take a lot of time. So I have a few questions:

How can I become more efficient overall?

Also, how do you overcome the fear of burning the dog when you’re drying it? Our dryers don’t have adjustable temperatures so there’s only one heat setting. I try to move around the dog and not keep the nozzle too close to their skin but at this salon they emphasize the dog not having any crimps or curls in its fur when it’s dry, so sometimes I have to go over an area several times or get a little closer than I’d like to.

How do you ensure you don’t get water in a dog’s ears? I’ve heard horror stories of people getting fired because an angry owner accused a bather of causing an ear infection in their dog when they got water in them.

One more thing (sorry, haha) how do you dry the dog’s face? Most of the dogs I work with will wriggle and struggle with me as much possible when I’m drying their ears and just anywhere around the head area (not that I can blame them). This usually leaves me with a very distressed dog that I have to eventually just put in the kennel with the floor dryer and hope that’ll do that trick until the groomer comes to get it.

Thank you so much!

 

[raggedyman]

@sentot Getting shampoo out of the fur fast- for long hair dogs focus on an area at a time and push the water or of the fur as I have the water on the area if that makes sense.

Drying fast- When I dry i use a high velocity dryer and our salons rule of thumb is dry super close to the skin so that the hair drys fast as possible. (Do not do this for long haired dogs with easily knotted hair) Most have a silicone cone that will help not burn the dog, just keep moving but you don’t have to go super fast.

Drying face- I take the attachment off of the dryer so that it’s not as harsh, most will be a lot easier after this others you may have to hold the head in place.

Drying ears- since most dogs hate this I hold the ear in my hand and do a few quick close swipes over the ear front and back. Cover the ear hole with your hand when drying close to it.

 

[sharonsmith]

@sentot Get yourself into a routine and follow it with every single dog you do. And it'll just take time to become efficient. It took me a least a month to get my routine down, and after I picked up the pace a lot.

As far as drying their faces, i just blow dry their face on the lowest possible the dryer will let me go. And dry their face from a far at angles. Never directly at the face. They still wiggle alot and that's what takes me the longest when I dry my dogs, but it gets the job done. Or try towel drying. Stick them in their kennel with the kennel dryer for a while, then pull em out and dry with the towel and stick them back in there again until they're dry.

The dryer we use at my job doesn't have any heat settings and I've never really worried about burning the dog. It just has 2 turn dials you turn to turn on one or both the motors and the dryer heats up as you use it. As long as the dryer is not overheating, you should be fine

 

[sharonsmith]

I want to elaborate on routine so this is what I did as a bather and still do as a groomer now.

-Rinse eyes with eye wash (policy for my workplace)

-Pluck ear hair

-Clean out ears

-Brush and spray teeth (if applicable, it's an add on)

-Express anal glands

-Bathe

-Shampoo face

-Rinse

-Bathe or condition

-Shampoo face

-Rinse

-Rinse eyes with eye wash

-Towel dry

And from then I take them to the dryer to dry or stick em in the kennel so I can bathe my next dog. Your routine is entirely up to how you want to do things. Once you figure out yours and get into the rhythm of it, you should be able to do without a second thought and that's how you progressively get faster

 

[returner]

@sentot Fear of burning the dog: quick flicks of the dryer head helps so that you stay in one spot but the air keeps moving. And I'd suggest ccheck and clean the dust trap of the dryer. Sometimes when theres too much dust built up in the dryer, the air just keeps gettig hot, simply cleaning the dust might keep the air cooler and cleaner.

For keeping the water out of ears: i hold their ear down, press the ear leather into the ear cavity. Press it from front to wash cheeks, press it from behind to wash the back of the ear, then hold the ear leather and just wash that. Sometimes they struggle so you'll have to hold on. Its just experience how much pressure is too much and hurts, how much pressure is too little and they get away. I also hold them under the chin to was around the muzzle without letting water into their noses, which can be dangerous especially for small dogs.

Drying the dogs face: 8 out of 10 will hate it. 1 will bear it and 1 will freak the f out. For the dog that freaks out and has a fit, leave it be. But for most dogs what I do is this; I start from drying the butt then move up to their neck. I move up their head with the condenser as much as I can. Sometimes I stop holding them and let them run around the table while keeping steady air directed towards the head from a distance. When the bulk of the water is gone I take off the condenser and move closer. Gradually I'll start to hold their chin and neck while drying behind ears, just the ear leather etc. Over time I move to cheeks and muzzle. They wriggle, you just keep at it. At this point most dogs realise that they can not get away and grudgingly start to settle down and put up with it. This whole gradual process happens in 2-3 mins.

But if you let the dog get away when it wriggles, the dog learns that by wriggling it can get away. You just have to trick the dog into gradually accepting the dryer and do not let it get away by wriggling. Because I promise you, at some point they realise that they cant get away and that its not so bad. They are not happy with it but they accept it. PLUS, brushing with a slicker as you dry the head will get things to dry faster, it separates the strands so air can get in between the hair strands. If you do this on the legs it ll also straighten the curls too.

About getting fast: i m afraid theres no hard fast advice on this. You just pick up speed over time.

Best of luck.

 

[imagebeastmarkbeast]

@sentot I don't have anything to add advice-wise to what others have said. You just need to practise and experiment and in time you will become more efficient.

The fact that you are concerned about burning the dogs & mention there's no way to control heat, become familiar with the symptoms of heat stroke and be ready to provide first aid for that specific situation. I work at a corp and we no longer use heat to dry at all nor do we use crate drying (but I understand your situation requires it) just to give an indication of how cautious we have become. I imagine your salon is quite small, so just bear all that in mind as you work. Dog's skin is much thinner than ours and they feel temperatures more, plus they cannot regulate their body temperature as efficiently as we can in higher temps.

 

[surrenderingtogod]

@sentot You should look into getting Happy Hoodies to help dry the ears. It's a terry cloth sleeve that goes over the ears and head. If you brush the ears out right after the bath, then put the hoodie on while you are drying the body. By the time you get to the head they will be mostly dry already and it also muffles the sound of the dryer for nervous dogs.

 

[sentot]

Thank you for your advice everyone! I will keep all your comments in mind during work!

 

[rosebowl]

@sentot We sometimes put cotton balls in the ears and you still have to be very careful.